Sight is more than a useful way to keep from stepping into holes. If our needs for safety and survival are provided for with care and attention, we can nourish a sense of joyfulness and wonder by using light and sight to feed our souls and heal our bodies. The aesthetic senses are high on the scale of human needs.

Light and color have long been used in physical and mental therapies. From ancient times, the Egyptians and later the Greeks used colored minerals, salves, and dyes of various colors and painted their healing sanctuaries in differing shades, all for the purposes of healing. It was obvious to these early practitioners that color and light were intrinsic to the creation of balance within the body. In the Middle Ages, the Arab physician Avicenna used red to move the blood, yellow to reduce pain, and so on, and the famous alchemist Paracelsus also used color and light extensively for healing.

Color therapy today is based on increasing scientific findings about the effects of various colors on the brain. In the 1940s and 1950s, for instance, it was confirmed that the color red stimulates the sympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system, while blue stimulates the parasympathetic part. In 1990, reports were made at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on the successful use of blue light in treating psychological problems, including addictions, eating disorders, impotence, and depression. Other highly practical applications of color therapy have been made in some prison systems. Notably, pink is the color chosen for many holding cells, as it is observed that this color immediately reduces violent and aggressive behavior and even temporarily reduces muscle strength.

One need only look at a variety of contemporary advertisements to see how particular colors have been chosen to elicit a mood that is conducive to the product being sold. Most of us appreciate the mood-setting qualities of dimmer switches, track lighting, and high-intensity spotlamps. In the industrialized world, indoor lighting has become a huge artistic industry that many businesses are utilizing effectively. Restaurants have always done so. Often rated on atmosphere" or "ambiance," restaurants have long paid attention to the quality of their lighting.

Your ability to see the stars is one of your inalienable rights and that right is being taken away. The amount of outdoor lighting is increasing every year. You can see the sky clearly in the mountains or out in the country because the amount of outdoor lighting in the vicinity is at a minimum. There are no more stars over the country lane than there are over the city street, but as light pollution spreads, city dwellers can see fewer and fewer stars.

You used to be able to go up in this valley and see Mount Baldy fifty miles away. Now you can't even see the stars at night because of the smog.  - An elderly native of a Los Angeles suburb

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